Happiest States: Hawaii Moves into First Place

If you needed an extra twist of the arm to set off on a
Hawaii vacation, here it is: The big-wave state was the happiest place to live
in 2009, according to a newly released national survey.

Topping the well-being list among all 50 states, Hawaii
pulled ahead of the 2008 leader Utah. But Utah and its neighbors still have
plenty to smile about. Nine of the top 10 well-being states reside in the
Midwest and the West. The south didn't fare so well, taking seven of the 11
lowest well-being
spots on the list.

The results come from interviews with more than 350,000
American adults who took part in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index in
2009. This is the second year of the survey.

The well-being score for each state is an average of six
sub-categories, including: life evaluation (self-evaluation about your present
life situation and anticipated one in five years); emotional health; work
environment (such as job
satisfaction); physical health; healthy behavior; basic access (access to
healthcare, a doctor, a safe place to exercise and walk, as well as community
satisfaction).

The top 10 states and their average well-being scores (out
of a possible 100 points):

Hawaii also topped the charts for life evaluation, emotional
health and physical health, while West Virginia scored the worst on those
indexes. Utah was number-one for work environment, scoring 10 points more than
the worst state, Delaware.

Bad news for Mississippi, which scored lowest on the basic
access index. For healthy behavior, Vermont topped the list while Kentucky
scored the worst.

Overall, state well-being stayed pretty stable from 2008 to
2009. Only four states – South Dakota, Mississippi, Hawaii, and Iowa – upped
their scores by two or more points compared with 2008. Wyoming had the greatest
drop of 1.3 points since 2008. Compared with 2008, 18 states moved in a
negative direction, 27 in a positive direction, and five stayed the same.

As for why one state tops the list while another fails
miserably, in the past researchers have looked at the relationship between 2008
well-being scores and various factors, including economic indicators, education
levels, personality traits and levels of inclusiveness. They found the states
with higher gross regional product (GRP) per capita (level of productivity and
standard of living), higher income levels and higher median housing value, were
significantly happier than poorer areas.

In addition, the happiest
states in 2008 tended to have more residents with advanced educations and
jobs that were considered "super-creative," such as architecture,
engineering, computer and math occupations, library positions, arts and design
work, as well as entertainment, sports and media occupations.

Level of inclusiveness was also important, according to the
research on the 2008 scores, with some of the states scoring best for
well-being also being the most tolerant.

If you're wondering if people in a particular state are
happy, you might just want to ask them. Another team of researchers reported
results last year in the journal Science showing that a person's self-reported
happiness matches up with objective measures
of well-being. A separate happiest states list, generated from the
individual surveys of this study, differed from the 2008 and 2009 lists that
relied on the Gallup-Healthways data.

Essentially, the team publishing their work in Science used
their data to statistically create a representative American. That way they
could take, for example, a 38-year-old woman with a high-school diploma and
making medium-wage who is living anywhere and transplant her to another state
and get a rough estimate of her happiness level.

Jeanna Bryner

Before becoming managing editor, Jeanna served as a reporter for Live Science and SPACE.com for about three years. Previously she was an assistant editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Jeanna has an English degree from Salisbury University, a Master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland, and a science journalism degree from New York University.